Not Just A Cat Chapter Four
NOT JUST A CAT CHAPTER FOUR I opened my eyes to the sound of a gong sounding from close by. I sighed, wanting to close my eyes and go back to sleep, but I got out of bed and stood in the doorway, anyway. "Good morning, master," I said along with the other masters. Shifu turned to Trinity, Nicole, and Tewey. "Where is Kahn?" he asked. "Master, he's sleeping," Trinity explained. "Don't even try to wake him up. He'll destroy your face." "But he doesn't have any claws, how can he do that?" Po asked. "Hand to hand combat," Trinity said as she smiled. "He's nuts." Shifu looked at her for a minute. "Let me try," he said. The girls (and Tewey) stepped aside so that Shifu could step into the room. He took a sleeping Kahn by the shoulders and shook him awake. "Get up, cat!" he yelled. "Get up!" As soon as Kahn woke up, Shifu was the one on the floor. "Never wake me up again!" he ordered Shifu, and walked to where Trinity and Nicole were standing. Shifu stood up and looked at my friends. "You haven't trained him well, have you?" he asked them in a harsh tone. "We've had him since November of last year, we were thinking that he would be fine, but…" Nicole trailed off. "But he isn't," Trinity finished for her. Shifu nodded. "Then we'll just have to put some discipline into him," he said. "I see that you didn't learn to behave from Shangari, did you?" Kahn sighed. "Not at all," he said. Shangari? "I'm sorry, Shifu, but who's Shangari?" I asked. "Is she Kahn's ex-wife?" "That is not for you to know now, Kelsi," Kahn said. "Kahn's right," Shifu said. "The truth may be a bit overwhelming for you. Get dressed everyone, and have breakfast. Then you are all to go to the training hall." We nodded and he left. As I walked back into my bedroom, my mind was one this 'Shangari' person. She had to be Kahn's ex-wife. If not, then who was she really? I retreated into my own bedroom to get dressed. I decided on a purple sleeveless Chinese style shirt and jean shorts, with purple sandals. I put my hair in a ponytail. When I went to the dining hall, I saw that Trinity and Nicole were dressed exactly like me. Except that Nicole's shirt was black, and Trinity's was navy blue. We had breakfast with the masters, talking about last night, and telling stories to each other. Trinity and Nicole were talking about things that Kahn had done in the past. "And I opened my door, and there he was, sitting right there, about to trip me, with gigantic eyes that just cried, 'Feed me'!" Trinity explained. "I had to pick him up and move him to my mom and dad's room. But this was before we got him de-clawed, you see, so his claws had gone deep into the carpet, so I couldn't pick him up without hurting his nails!" She swallowed a piece of cereal before continuing. "And I think that this is the part where I woke up," Nicole explained. "I see Trinity trying to pull Kahn's nails out of the carpet one by one, and I ask her, 'What are you doing?'" "And so I'' respond, 'Nicole, I'm trying not to hurt our cat, what do you think I'm doing?'" said Trinity. "So she gets out of bed and tries to help me! We're there for a good twenty minutes before we actually get him out of the carpet. By then, I'm off schedule, so I rush to get dressed, eat breakfast, brush my teeth- and I run outside at seven forty and see the bus driving past me!" "Oh yeah, I remember that," I said. "I was about to go knock on your door at seven thirty five to drag you out there. No wonder why you weren't on the bus." "Well duh!" Kahn said. "Trinity, you squeeze me when you pick me up, so I was trying to tell you that I could get out of the floor myself, but you dug my nails out of there without trying to listen to what I was saying!" "Well excuse us for believing that cats can't talk before coming to the animal world," said Trinity, finishing her cereal. "Well, I'm done. I'll meet you all in the training hall." She then put her utensils and her bowl in the sink and walked out of the room and down the hall to the training hall. I followed her as soon as I was done. Kahn followed at my heels. I looked down at him as I walked, continuing to wonder who Shangari was, and who Kahn's ex-wife was. Was the cat that came last night his ex-wife? No, she couldn't be. She sounded too much like a young teenager. I reached the training hall. I recognized the equipment immediately, and started remembering that I still had to learn how to control my sword. I ran into the hall of warriors and got it from the pedestal, bringing it back into the training hall. Hmm. What could I do to sharpen my sword skills? Maybe I could ask Po for advice. ---- Po was just walking into the training hall. I walked up to him. "Um, Po," I said. "I was wondering, what should I do to sharpen my skills with my sword?" I held up the sword of heroes. "I'm not used to a sword, and I want to be." Po was about to respond when Shifu walked into the room. "Students!" he announced. Any training that had been going on stopped as we all turned to listen to our master. "Students, today we are going to be sparring," he said. I gasped in fright. Sparring? I didn't know enough Kung Fu to spar! "Humans, Khan, Teward, you five will be watching for today," said Shifu. "You must learn more Kung Fu before you can spar." I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness for that," I muttered. "Hey, why can't we spar?" Kahn demanded. "Because, Kahn, you five do not know enough Kung Fu to spar," Shifu repeated. "Have I made myself clear?" "Shifu, I ''beg you to let me spar," Kahn said. "I went three years without doing Kung Fu, and I would like to show you what I have learned from my ex-wife." Shifu stared at him blankly for a few moments. "Very well, Kahn," Shifu said. "Shangari would have wanted you to spar and to show me what skills you've got." So Shangari was ''his ex-wife. "Thank you, Shifu," Kahn replied. "Come, students," Shifu ordered. We followed him out into the courtyard. I recognized it as the place where I watched the masters train. Teward, Nicole, Trinity and I sat on a bench while the other masters lined up in front of Shifu while he selected which two would spar. "Kahn, you will be sparring with Po," Shifu said. Kahn smiled, facing his opponent. "It will be nice to spar with you, Dragon Warrior," he said, bowing. "Nice to spar with you too, Kahn," Po said, bowing back as the two went into the middle of the area and the five sat next to us on the benches. "I'm warning you, I'm ''really ''good, so do you want me to go easy on you?" "Don't hold back, Dragon Warrior," Khan said, getting in a fighting position. "I learned all the Kung Fu that I could learn from my ex-wife, and that was a lot." "This is going to be awesome," Po said in his usual fanboyish voice. Shifu hit a gong and the fight began. Kahn charged at Po, and Po blocked the punch very quickly. Kahn smiled. "Clever," he said. Kahn then snuck up in front of Po and kicked him in the shin. "Ow!" Po yelled, clutching his shin. "That hurt!" "That was kind of the point," Kahn said, avoiding a punch from Po. Kahn then kicked Po in the face, and jumped onto his shoulders. Kahn grabbed Po's skull and twisted it quickly. Po then started to spin around like a spinning top. I gasped, and my eyes widened. Kahn knew a lot of Kung Fu, and he was able to move very quickly. Where did Kahn learn all of this? From his ex-wife? We'd never seen him do anything like this in the past. While Po was spinning, Kahn kicked and punched him repeatedly. Kahn laughed. "This is getting kind of fun," I heard him say. Po was seriously getting hurt. My breathing got faster. I wanted to stand up and stop Kahn from hurting Po, but I knew that I wasn't allowed to do that. When Po stopped spinning, his eyes rolled all around. He then fell backwards onto the floor. Shifu rang the gong again. "Po is unable to continue," he announced. "Kahn wins!" I ran up to Po, not even bothering to congratulate Kahn for his victory. I grabbed Po's shoulders. "Po, wake up!" I yelled. "Wake up!" (Yes, I did all this out of my giganto-normous crush on the panda) His eyelids started to come up. Po looked me in the eye. "Are you my mommy?" he asked dreamily. (Wow, his voice was ''attractive...) I rolled my eyes. "Po, you lost the match," I explained. "Kahn beat you." "He did?" Po asked. "Oh, he did! Wow Kahn, you sure know a lot of Kung Fu." I helped Po to his feet and Kahn turned to us as everyone came up to congratulate him. "I'll take that as a compliment, thank you." "Where did you learn all that Kung Fu?" Trinity asked. "I've never seen you use it before." "Why would I use Kung Fu in the human world where there are humans all around me?" Kahn asked. "Good point," Trinity replied. "Answer my first question, please." "I'm not going to tell you now, Trinity," Kahn replied. "I want you to get to know me first." "You've lived in our house for months, I think we've already gotten to know you," Nicole said. Kahn was about to reply when Shifu walked up to him. "Well done, Kahn," he said. "Shangari must have taught you a lot of Kung Fu." "Yes, Shifu, she did," Kahn replied. "Everything that she knew." "I'd like to finally know who Shangari is," Nicole said, crossing her arms, glaring at her cat. "When we think you are ready, human, when we think you are ready," said Shifu. "Now all of you, back to training." We nodded and went back into the training hall. I grabbed my sword and went to the gigantic bowl, the one where arrows fly at you. I balanced myself on the rim of the bowl while avoiding the arrows. When an arrow came at me, I would slash it with my sword and it would fall into the bowl. ---- I wiped the sweat from my face as I finished slashing what may have been my two hundred and fiftieth arrow. The broken arrows lay at the bottom of the bowl, laying there in defeat. I smiled, proud of my accomplishment, and jumped off of the bowl. "What up, Kelsi?" a voice asked. I turned around. Trinity stood behind me, a bandage over her right elbow, a small smile on her face. Her body was dripping with sweat, and I saw a burn mark on her cheek. "What the heck happened to you?" I asked her. "Training," Trinity replied, clutching her bandaged elbow. "Viper was training me and we were by the fire… thingy. I was doing well until it burned my cheek and my elbow. Training is painful." I nodded. "I bet we haven't seen anything yet," I replied, knowing that our training would only grow more difficult...